Views on the media

Every month I take part in the Carnival of Journalism. It’s a fun little event where a selection of invited bloggers bash their collective heads and write about journalism. It’s been especially good in recent times, as there has been a set question to answer for all of the bloggers.

Think of it as an enclosed meme on your favourite subject.

Anyway: I had an idea. After reading the wonderful tale about Jessica DaSilva, and having been a long-time reader of MerandaWrites, I thought it would be a stellar idea to start a blog ring — just like the Carnival — but specifically for young journalists.

Only a handful, mind you. The ring will be invitation-only: The bloggers will have already made a bit of a name for themselves. I think, collectively, the group could hold some power. We are, after all, the future of the industry. Wouldn’t you be interested in what we’re up to?

After posing the idea on Twitter, John at Journalism.co.uk got in touch to say they’d be interested in hosting it. So, in the spirit of all things bloggery, I’m now putting the idea to everyone:

Who should be in it?
What should we be writing about?
Would you read it?
Should the ‘age’ be based on life age, or years of experience?

I look forward to seeing what you all think.

NewsWire.co.nz is the new news website for the Whitireia Journalism School, New Zealand.

I built it. And, aside from the fee for hosting (pennies) and my own personal wage, we did it for FREE. And what’s more, it’ll stay free.

We created and launched the site within THREE WEEKS. That includes setting up the hosting, domain name, content management system, design, editorial structure, promotion and publishing software. Oh, and lets not forget that students creating the content have been training as journalists for less than six weeks.

I’ll cut to the chase: IF YOU RUN A JOURNALISM SCHOOL, YOU NEED TO DO THIS TOO. IT IS TOO EASY TO NOT BOTHER.

The simplicity of the operation is staggering. Using a series of free, open-source tools, we have created a multi-media news website that is already involving the community.

Now, when I was putting all this together, I constantly referred to the work of Mindy McAdams. Her how-to guides have meant some very tricky aspects of the teaching — setting up Audacity, for example — were made a lot simpler.

Now it’s one thing for Mindy to create those sorts of guides for her own students, but it’s another thing altogether to put those resources on the web, for free, for everyone to learn from.

So, inspired by Mindy’s example, I’ll explain everything that went into NewsWire.co.nz. Maybe some other journalism schools can follow Whitireia’s lead.

Continue reading →

Yesterday, I shared the bill with Paul Bradshaw on Radio New Zealand’s Mediawatch program.

Paul was discussing Jolly Journalists — of which I am one! — and I was interviewed about my trip here in New Zealand, but also about online journalism in general. I hate myself on the radio (don’t we all?) but I think the show’s a pretty good listen.

Click here to listen to the clip (Windows Media Player). Paul’s bit is 13 minutes in, and I’m on after that at about 19 minutes in.

Must point out this blog isn’t “award-winning” as Colin describes, although if anyone wants to give me an award… then you’re more than welcome

What is hyper-local? News that is close to us, yes?

Well ok then, but what exactly is ‘local’? One thing’s for sure: It’s geographic.

And by God, isn’t that boring? I don’t want hyper-local news unless it’s interesting. But then what is interesting? We shouldn’t assume people find news interesting just because it is near to them.

This is all obvious, of course. But you wouldn’t think it when you read about all the hyper-local sites that seem to be springing up all over the place with the intention of forcing down news ‘closer to you’ down our guts.

Instead, we should be harnessing all the Web 2.0 power into hyper-personal.

Hyper-personal is the people I know, the teams I support, the musicians I like. It’s more of the news I’m interested in, and less of the news that I’m not. It’s the bloggers that post from the other side of the world — but are still relevant to me. It’s a news agenda that I can tailor to my needs and my needs alone. Do I want to follow the twists and turns of Zimbabwe politics? Yes please. Do I want to know each detail of the McCann case? No thanks. Do I want to know the current status of Amy Winehouse’s beehive? Maybe.

Do I want those decisions to be made by anyone else that isn’t me?

No.

I don’t want hyper-local. I want hyper-personal. And it’s up to newspapers to take social-networking’s lead and give me what I need.

Hyper-local and hyper-personal both mean news that is close to you. But hyper-personal looks beyond geography, and in doing so, finds stories that really are close to us.

This has made my day.

In current affairs this morning — we spend half an hour each morning discussing the news — we were chatting about FairFax’s decision to axe a pub-full of sub-editors from some of its papers. This was in addition to yesterday’s news from the UK that City AM has decided to remove the subs’ desk altogether in a cost-cutting masterstroke.

Well the typo-ed Guardian article that I pointed out in that post shows that single humans can’t be trusted with subbing copy. And now some quite glorious proof that machines can’t be trusted with snubbing out errors either. This gem of an entry from the brilliant Regret the Error blog explains that the over-cautious chiefs over at OneNewsNow didn’t ever want to use the word ‘gay’ when referring to a homosexual. How best to achieve this small detail? Simple: Use a machine to change it automatically! Genius!

Genius, that is, until a rapid young chap named Tyson Gay won a race.

He suddenly became Tyson Homosexual when the site’s filter got a hold of an AP story. Boing Boing has a screen grab of the hilarity:

But perhaps the best part of the story was this:

Asked how he felt, Homosexual said: ‘A little fatigued.’

I don’t think this post needs anymore words, do you?

G’day and Kia Ora from Down-Under. (See… picked up the lingo and everyfink.)

*ahem*

Right, we’re verrrry close to launching the news website that I have built. It’s called NewsWire, and come launch day, you’ll find it right here: www.newswire.co.nz . Until then you’ll have to do with a little coming soon note. Unless you know your way around Wordpress, in which case you’ll be able to load the homepage with a bit of URL jiggery-pokery.

But you wouldn’t do that, would you? It would be like opening window 24 on the 1st of December. It’s just not the done thing.

Anyway. To the point:

I hit a dilemma today. How involved in the web process should my students be?

In a perfect world, they’d do it all. Gather news, write copy, take pictures, record audio, take video, produce multimedia packages and so on. And then plonk it all into a CMS ready to hit the web at the click of a button.

However, we don’t live in a perfect world. Some people won’t get it. It’s not their fault. I can safely say that I could be taught by the artist in the world — but I’ll never be able to draw. Slightly different, yes, but the principles are still there. We have to get used to the fact that not everyone will be able to be an online journalist to the full degree.

But that’s not to say they can’t do some of it.

It’s like when I do radio. I can edit audio, cue clips up, do all (most?) of the technical things. Not to mention all the newsgathering beforehand. Yet, I couldn’t present a sandwich, let alone a radio show. So I leave that to someone else.

For web, what skills should we be insisting students learn at least?

Well, me and my crack team (so that’s myself and two tech-minded students, then), have decided that every student should probably be expected tonewsgather (audio, pictures and video included), and then accompany that raw material with a written article.

Said article should then be loaded onto the CMS (as I said, we’re using Wordpress. A doddle?).

That, the team decided, should probably be it. Students will then email their multimedia to a special Gmail account (for the storage, you understand) for it to be prepared and then uploaded before eventually going live.

The people doing the uploading will be a squad of four. Jim (the program leader), myself (tutor) plus Luke and Aaron — the two tech-minded students.

The process that the normal students won’t get involved in — unless they show a desire to — is cropping and resizing images; cutting, compressing and uploading audio/video; and producingslideshows with Soundslides. And, they will also be spared the hassle of using all the custom field bits of Wordpress that are necessary to make sure our template works correctly.

This is good from our point of view. It’ll mean we get sorted quicker, and content will be clean, consistent and well-produced from the offset.

But am I doing the other students a disservice by not insisting they get involved with the WHOLE procedure?

I’m tempted to run a series of 2-hour workshops on Audacity, Soundslides and Windows Movie Maker (no comments on the software, please. That’s all that’s on offer. And anyway, it’s a good bunch). But in doing so I risk making the whole experience seem too complex and, as a result, very offputting.

For me, online journalism isn’t about what goes on inside the computer. It’s more about attacking stories with a certain state of mind. It’s about knowing that certain stories work better with video. It’s about knowing that audio just HAS to be downloadable if we are to know how that greasy politician really sounded. It’s about seeing news in a way that isn’t just printed or spoken word.

That seems the greater goal: Giving the students that bite for online reporting. Once that’s laid down, the technical expertise can come afterwards — if at all.

Am I right?

Ironically, in an article about freesheet City AM ditching its sub-editors, Media Guardian’s Leigh Holmwood faces a subbing error of his own:

London business freesheet City AM is to axe eight jobs, including its entire subediting, team as part of a streamlining of its operation.*

I can’t get City AM from where I am. Will someone please start some sort of City AM typo-watch scheme?

* Correct at 08.18am 30/06/08.

Update: The typo has been corrected

Finally, Jim Tucker has started blogging. I say finally because I’ve listened to thoughts coming out of the man’s head for the past month and a bit and thought they’d make great blog posts. If only I could write them.

Anyway, blame a rainy Sunday, maybe, but it has happened. Read Jim Tucker’s blog, ‘Tuckr’, here.

He writes in one of his first posts about the habit of reading a newspaper. It’s very, very true — for some people. Some people just love a bit of Sudoku, don’t they?

I started to wonder what my newspaper habit is. I don’t have one. I pick up the paper, skim the news, then put it down. Sometimes, I won’t even get as far as that. I’m perfectly content getting all I need by reading the newspapers respective websites.

Apart from Mondays and Thursdays. Monday for the Guardian’s Media section. Thursday for its Technology. Specialist sections that I know I can only really enjoy when I pick up the print edition, because I want to read at length. I don’t need that with general news.

That is my newspaper habit. What’s yours?

Could more specialist sections be the way forward for newspapers? What is neccessary to recreate the newspaper habit for young people. What do we want?

Do we even want a newspaper habit?

I hate the ‘ThisIs’ series of websites. I hate the name. I hate the designs. Urg urg urg. Many of these local sites would benefit greatly from just having all the rubbish whipped out and replaced with a simple publishing platform that everyone in the newsroom could operate. That’s what we’re doing at Whitireia, and that’s what should be happening pretty much everywhere.

And for heaven’s sake, stop calling them ‘This Is’. It’s annoying. Thisishullandeastriding.co.uk?! What a jumble. What on earth is wrong with just HullDailyMail.co.uk?

Anyway, Dan Ionescu, my successor on The Linc, has written a brilliant critique about the ThisIsLincolnshire website. Although it uses Lincolnshire as the example, the comments could be applied to pretty much all of the ‘ThisIs’ sites. Apart from maybe Hull, which is getting better, but their video content is still pretty shoddy. What is the point of a video clip that just films the newspaper pages…? Go and take a look. It’s getting better though, so hats off to the Hull Daily Mail.

Anyway, Dan’s advice is really terrific. The most insightful nugget for me is this:

* Asking users to make the page their home page (top, left) is quite 90s style, taking in consideration that Echo offers RSS feeds. They should be placed somewhere higher on the page, with a bigger emphasis. Also, Echo does not offer full RSS feeds, but does it in the old school BBC style, with snippets, redirecting to the article’s page. Wrong decision, as nowadays RSS feeds can be monetised easily, and their visitor stats can be effortlessly monitored;

And…

* Geotagging, for a more comprehensive local reporting, together with interactive maps and graphs.

Reuters mobile journalism kit. I really, really want one. Picture: KevGlobal (Flickr)

This post is for the June Carnival of Journalism. Andy Dickinson has posed this question:

Is (digital) journalism better the more local it is and what does that do to growth?

And I’ll attempt to add my views on that question by bringing up an idea that’s been bubbling in my mind the last couple of days. I think this idea will affect growth.

Read on, if you please…

I won’t go into all the reasons why wire services are busted beyond repair. Go and read Flat Earth News.

I also made it perfectly clear — after my time working at Sky News Online — that I think news agency stories should be given the heave-ho. I still stand by that. As Jeff Jarvis has continually said, lets do what we do best, and link to the rest.

Anyway, I left that out there to stew for a while without offering much in the way of a solution to it all. Well now I have an idea.

In New Zealand, the NZ Press Association (NZPA) is in deep, deep trouble. It’s running out of moeny. And with no money, they’ll have no staff. Which, pretty much, is the state most wire services are in now. Minimal staff cover areas far greater than one person can ever cover effectively. Terrible. You can’t turn over well-researched copy when you’re that busy.

Meanwhile, local newspapers everywhere are also running out of money. Reporters are losing jobs left, right and centre. And the lack of adequate pay means good quality local journalists are drifting into the realms of PR. And who can blame them? A stay in one of Auckland’s flashiest waterfront hotels courtesy of Vodafone recently taught me all I need to know about money-printing license many of the top corporations have.

So you’re left to journalists who are not only underpaid, underexperienced and undermotivated, but also overworked: time that should be spent newsgathering is spent dealing with press releases or re-writing wire copy.

Here’s my proposal for how that should change:

Wire 2.0 - the NewsHub

Imagine a service, we’ll call it the NewsHub. The NewsHub acts as a collector of news, gathered in from local reporters up and down the land. It also acts as a distributor of news, sharing it out to other local reporters, who are in turn submitting their own local copy. Big stories will then be shared upwards to the national and international media.

And… that’s it. Simple. The NewsHub concept would improve journalism — both national and local — a thousand times over. Why? Because it will provide capital for more journalists to be hired, and will make it financially viable to send reporters out into the community.

Outlets that opt in to NewsHub would pay a fee — much like they do with current wire services. The difference here, of course, is that the fee would be pooled across the service. The income being spread to local newspapers/websites/whatever on the basis that the more you produce, the more you will earn.

In other words, the more good reporting you do, the more money you will have available to do it. Much like the manner in which a freelance photographer would distribute pictures.

Which would mean good reporters would suddenly become very valuable to local press. It could even mean — gasp — that local media outlets can afford to hire more reporters, knowing that a bigger news-gathering operation could be much more profitable than, say, telling one reporter to write up all those press releases or slave over an advertorial.

Not to mention the positive influence of good, old-fashioned journalism. Imagine a weekly local paper crammed full of insightful reporting, investigations, human interest and community spirit. I know my local papers aren’t doing this at the moment — are yours?

This focus would then filter up and up to the national and international press. ‘Flat Earth News’ stories would be snuffed out and eliminated quickly and effectively. National media could follow leads from local press as to the biggest stories, as local reporters would now be adequately funded to produce 24-hour coverage. They’ll be Twittering, blogging… the whole shebang. And the community will be right in there too, sharing all their content to reporters at a local level who then, through NewsHub, would distribute their content, turning it into what will be a very profitable exercise for all.

We don’t need traditional wire services. They were invented before we could all communicate without help. Example: If an explosion happens in Cambridge, a reporter for the Cambridge Evening News will be right on it. He’ll be monitoring tweets/pictures coming in from the incident. He will report on the situation, and as he does, he’ll be sharing it all via NewsHub. Earning money for the CEN as he goes. At what point does the PA need to be there? It’s a redundant service — only in existence because 1) until now, there hasn’t been a suggestion of an alternative and 2) because editors are too bloody petrified to ditch it. Come on, editors, own up.

As you’ll have noticed, these are skeleton plans at the moment. There is still plenty of thinking to be done, but to return to Andy Dickinson’s question (bet you’d thought I’d forgotten, eh?), by harnessing the power of local digital journalism and turning it into a mutual, lucrative business, local media can grow and grow. Easily. The only limit is in how much brilliant journalism we can, en masse, produce for the benefit of the rest of the world.

Click here to see a Powerpoint presentation (929kb) comparing the old model and the ‘NewsHub’ model (very kindly put together by Jim Tucker).